Audio loudspeakers are ubiquitous in homes, offices and outdoor spaces throughout the world. Conventional audio speakers typically use transducers that act as pistons, and strive to be point sources of sound. However, conventional audio speakers are most commonly rectangular boxes, which often do not fit into the decor of the home or other environment of the speaker. Partly for this reason, more planar speaker designs have been introduced. However, even though some planar speaker designs exist, these existing planar speakers are typically fragile, expensive and lack good low frequency response.
One example of a known planar speaker design includes edge-driven, curved panel speakers where the sound originates in “flextensional” sonar transducers that are designed to resonate at ultrasonic frequencies. However, speakers of this type typically lack wideband frequency response. Furthermore, existing edge-driven speakers intended to produce wideband audible signals have limitations due to uniform diaphragm construction, fragile materials, and high costs of production.
For the reasons above, there is a need for improved audio speaker designs with more aesthetic flexibility than traditional, box-like speakers and improved sound quality relative to existing edge-driven speakers.